Home security alarm provider Monitronics, Dallas, Texas, was awarded the False Alarm Reduction Association (FARA) Industry False Alarm Reduction Achievement Award. FARA presented the award to Monitronics at its annual convention this year in San Antonio, Texas.

Monitronics is recognized this year as a result of significantly reducing false alarms from 0.67 percent to 0.5 percent through several major programs beginning in August 2010. The company was chosen for the award by a group from across the United States and Canada which consisted of public safety officials, peers in the industry, and alarm association representatives.  

“One of our industry’s basic challenges is false alarms; our ultimate goal is to positively impact how quickly emergency responders can reach victims during actual emergencies. The fact that FARA recognizes our efforts is an honor,” said Mary Jensby, Monitronics central station director. “Our programs only work if every single member of our team is on board, that’s why this award represents our entire company and not just one person.”

Brad Shipp, FARA executive director, noted, “The effort Monitronics has put in to reducing false alarms is impressive. Our members voted to recognize them with this year’s Achievement Award because they have implemented a plan to attack false alarms that has shown noticeable results in several jurisdictions across the U.S. If every monitoring center followed a similar plan, we would not have such a significant problem with false alarms.”

This year marks Monitronics’ first year with the association and its first year of taking on false alarms. The company promised in a statement to continue to work with public safety officials, customers, and the industry to combat false alarms.